ACR clinical statement on noninvasive cardiac imaging

Coronary artery disease and other acquired and congenital cardiac diseases are major medical and socio-economic problems. Historically, imaging has had a critical role in the diagnosis and evaluation of acquired and congenital cardiac disease. Advances in computed tomography (CT), with multidetector CT and electron beam CT technology, and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, now make it possible to noninvasively image the coronary arteries, cardiac chambers, valves, myocardium, and pericardium and assess cardiac function, and CT and MR imaging are becoming increasingly important in the evaluation of cardiac disease. Radiologists, because of their extensive experience in CT and MR imaging, have an important role in imaging cardiac patients using these modalities. This clinical statement of the ACR discusses various technical and patient safety issues related to cardiac CT and MR imaging, and it suggests appropriate qualifications for radiologists until such time as ACR practice guidelines for the performance of cardiac CT and cardiac MR imaging are written and approved through the usual ACR process. It stresses that the interpreting physician is responsible for examining not only the cardiac structures of interest but also all the visualized noncardiac structures and must report any clinically relevant abnormalities of these adjacent structures.